Student Testimony

“The Elmezzi was a perfect fit for me – I was an experienced clinician who was given the tools, education and exposure to learn and participate in research.”– Dr. Daniel Griffin

Daniel Griffin, MD, was chief of medicine at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, and oversaw a successful private practice there, but he felt as if something was missing from his professional life. He was interested in doing something beyond patient care and wanted to help speed up the process of bringing new treatment options to his patients. He decided to focus on becoming a researcher. He left his practice and enrolled in the Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine.

During their training, Elmezzi students conduct research in Feinstein Institute laboratories to pursue new therapeutic approaches and diagnostic tools. Dr. Griffin started working with his new mentor, Thomas L. Rothstein, MD, PhD, head of the Center for Oncology and Cell Biology. In 2011, Dr. Rothstein, Dr. Griffin and colleagues were the first to discover B1 cells in humans (the B1 cell was discovered in mice, but 30 years of research had failed to identify a similar cell in humans). Since this discovery, Dr. Griffin has been working to learn more about infectious diseases and the human immune system.